]]>By: xiangreekhttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1469845
Sat, 07 Jul 2012 05:15:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1469845I had that as my signature until my manager told me to cut the shit.
]]>By: Sagodjurhttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1469219
Fri, 06 Jul 2012 19:10:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1469219 Completely off topic – I can’t find anything online about the hard-boiled story you referenced in a post nine months ago called The Deader They Die. You mind telling me who wrote it?
]]>By: Antinous / Moderatorhttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468696
Fri, 06 Jul 2012 05:01:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468696You should come to Palm Springs for the fireworks, then. The mountain reflects the sound quite dramatically.
]]>By: penguinchrishttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468680
Fri, 06 Jul 2012 04:31:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468680I’m not sure how common these are, but at my local fireworks show they had some that directed all their energy not toward glowing burning stuff, but solely toward making the loudest bang possible. They were awesome… you could see them shooting up and then instead of the typical big explosion, it was just an enormous boom. The sound is my favorite part of fireworks shows and this one in San Diego must have been unbelievably great.
]]>By: BarBarSevenhttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468672
Fri, 06 Jul 2012 03:57:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468672Fail? AGAIN! AGAIN!
]]>By: chaopoiesishttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468654
Fri, 06 Jul 2012 03:27:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468654A recent article in the U-T San Diego quotes the owner of the fireworks company as claiming the problem was caused by a “rogue signal” sent by “a virus” in their computerized launch software. You can’t make this stuff up…
]]>By: oldtakuhttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468620
Fri, 06 Jul 2012 02:21:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468620They’re saying $400K with all three barges!
]]>By: Subdrillhttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468506
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:29:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468506I’ve had a bit of pyro experience, and with the disclaimer that this is speculation, it’s likely a rather unforgiving feature caused by user error. They were probably using FireOne choreography software and hardware, a really expensive, but very simple and easily scalable system for designing and performing pyro shows. Once you’ve built a database of all your products, you can drag and drop any shell or effect to burst at time “x” to line up with the music, and the software will automatically initiate the effect at time “x-y”, where “y” is the time that effect takes to go from launch until the actual burst. Once you’ve programmed the show, you can easily print out lists of where to hook up every single piece of product, from 1 to whatever; the loaders don’t have to deal with the timings of anything, and come performance time, the operator only has to hit the start button and the show runs automatically along a perfectly-synced timeline.
Here’s the trouble though: when checking for continuity and connection right before the show, you can move that curser anywhere along the timeline to check when and where and how everything’s going to fire, and you can start and stop anywhere during the program’s timeline without resetting to the beginning every time. If after the continuity check, you don’t reset to the beginning, and you’re now live and ready to fire the real thing and hit start, the curser doesn’t just stop or reset to the beginning, it attempts to play from that spot. And then fires all product that is set to fire from that delay -or earlier-. The software effectively says “now’s the time to fire everything whose delay is less than time “x-y”, and for a time “x” at the end of the show, that’s everything. The operator hits start, the software sends the “fire everything” signal, and you get this. It’s happened a couple times before, it’s a terrible bug I’m surprised hasn’t been fixed, and the lead operator was almost definitely fired for this, that was probably at least $100,000 worth of product shot in 9 seconds.
]]>By: Mike Fayerhttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468459
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:48:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468459That’s not a bug that’s a feature.
]]>By: Dolphin Bunnywolfhttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468454
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 22:43:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468454 Or maybe they hired Beavis and Butthead to run their fireworks shows?

]]>By: Paul Renaulthttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468368
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:27:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468368 You have to include all the time spent on Diablo and Diablo II.

(Actually, after fifteen or twenty levels of Diablo, I stopped playing it. I’ve never understood the attraction.)

]]>By: wilmcdanielhttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468322
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:53:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468322I like sparklers using proximity to create BIG.
]]>By: Wiki-Truthshttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468315
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:50:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468315http://www.scarybear.org/index.php?comicID=80
]]>By: jackie31337http://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468316
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:50:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468316That was my impression, too.
]]>By: nathanrobertshttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468310
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:48:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468310I thought that was just a stray car alarm. (Set off by the vibrations of an entire barge of fireworks going off all at once no doubt)
]]>By: nathanrobertshttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468302
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:42:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468302That actually sounds fairly similar to the (supposed) origin of Murphy’s Law. An experiment involving a series of force sensors returned no data; as it turns out, every single sensor had been systematically wired backwards.
]]>By: Daneelhttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468276
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:18:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468276Something like this happened at a Guy Fawkes Night display I went to once. Caused by one firework exploding on the ground and setting all the others off, some were blown over and went off at strange angles. Think a few people were nastily injured.

]]>By: ponzicarhttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468126
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 19:09:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468126 That’s not a glitch. That’s an improvement. It’s a lot more spectacular than watching them go off one at a time over a much larger period of time.
]]>By: Gemmahttp://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/video-san-diego-fireworks-acc.html#comment-1468129
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 19:09:00 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=169503#comment-1468129Scotland was there before you! The same thing happened in Oban on bonfire night last year (November 2011).